iPhone camera roll & file names > IMG_10000

Just encountered a very odd issue with my wife's iPhone 3G (v3.0.1). She could take pictures with the camera, but they would not show up in the camera roll. The photo albums list correctly showed the number of photos (217), however inside the camera roll album it would only show 200. Using iPhoto '08, we could successfully pull down all of the images from the phone.

After a while (and some trial and error) I found that other users are also having similar issues. Apparently, the iPhone does not like having photos where the file name is greater than IMG_10000.jpg. After renaming a dozen files, including the thumbnail and associated files located in the .MISC directory of the iPhone everything began working again.

I'd suggest Apple change the algorithm so when the iPhone creates new folders inside the DCIM that it resets the counter on the file names. Of course, photo and editing apps may be a major factor.

For anyone else that runs into this issue, I used a [paid] desktop app called 'PhoneView' to copy files between the iPhone and my Mac.

I used PhoneView [paid desktop app] to copy the files from my iPhone to my Mac. Deleted the copy on the phone, renamed the files, and then coppied them back to the phone. You'll need to open up a terminal window and run a command to show hidden files. Forget the command right now, but it can be googled.

i just had that exact problem yesterday and until now i still dont what to do, i thought iphone is the best phone, but right now im thinkin about switching to htc or blackberry. They dont have issues like this.